September 2, 2013 4:48 pm

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said that defensive end Chris Clemons will practice for the first time this season on Wednesday, but will not play in Sunday’s game at Carolina.

“We’re real excited about that,” Carroll said. “He’s had a great preparation to get back. It will be light on Wednesday. But he’s been really busting it, so we’ll just bring him along, and we’re going to take our time.”

Carroll also said that projected starting defensive tackles Brandon Mebane (groin) and Tony McDaniel (groin) will practice on Wednesday.

Michael Bennett also returned to practice after having a procedure done on his toe over the weekend.

Carroll said that defensive end Cliff Avril (hamstring) ran pretty well today, and he’s anxious to see how he performs on Wednesday.

Rookie defensive tackle Jordan Hill (strained bicep) does not have a time table on his return, but Carroll maintained that he’s still expected to be out for just a short period of time.

“I was with him today, and he’s feeling way better, and he’s getting closer,” Carroll said. “I don’t know when it’s going to be, but it’s not going to be a long time before he has a chance to get back.”

With all the injuries up front, recent addition D’Anthony Thomas, who is wearing No. 94, will get an opportunity to contribute.

“We were looking for a little depth here, and a guy who could battle for us,” Carroll said. “We liked his movement. And he could understand our system. He got indoctrinated a little bit from his other camp. He looked active enough that he could help us, and he’s active and fit. So we’re a little bit knocked up at the defensive line spot, and we’ve got to make sure we’ve got a guy who can play.”

Carroll addressed the tough decision he had to make in cutting down the roster, including letting veterans like Michael Robinson and Antoine Winfield go.

“It was very difficult,” he said. “We had a lot of tough decisions, and Mike was one of them. Mike’s been with us for a long time. All these guys that left hurt us in a sense. They bought in and given us everything they had. And Mike was a very instrumental guy on this football team as we come along, so they’re all tough decisions.”

Robinson’s departure also coincided with the impressive play of second-year pro Derrick Coleman, who not only proved he could be serviceable at fullback, but also showed flashes of being a good special teams player.

Coleman will be Seattle’s starting fullback when Seattle goes with a base formation.

Carroll said the Winfield was beat out by Walter Thurmond for the starting nickel cornerback job. That development, along with the fact that Jeremy Lane and Byron Maxwell can play nickel, made Winfield expendable.

“He’s a terrific player still today,” Carroll said. “He ran up against Walter Thurmond, and Walter just had a great camp. He did a fantastic job for us. He’s at his very best he’s every been – versatile and all over the special teams units. He’s returning as well, and we’re really excited for him at the nickel spot.”

On losing fourth round selection Chris Harper from the practice squad to San Francisco’s active roster, here’s what Carroll had to say: “We were fortunate enough to get him back on the practice squad. That’s how you go about it, and it’s a gamble that you take. They picked up a good football player.”

On going with two tight ends, Carroll said the team does have some versatility in being able to use Mike Person as a sixth offensive lineman in goal line or short yardage situations.

“The news was really good; he should be out at practice on Wednesday,” Bowie said. “He had an old injury that showed up, and it was a little confusing at the start. But he has a chance to be ready to go for Wednesday’s practice, which is great.”

Carroll said that Sidney Rice (knee) will practice on Wednesday, and Jermaine Kearse will be up first on kick returns.

Also, receiver Stephen Williams (concussion) should practice on Wednesday, a good sign that he could be ready for Sunday’s game.

John Lotulelei switched to No. 58, while defensive end Ty Powell is now wearing No. 46. Tharold Simon switched to No. 27 now that Winston Guy is gone.

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

I guess they liked what they saw in D’Anthony Smith’s tape way better than Jaye Howard and McDonald. I thought Jaye looked good this year and McDonald has been steady. But they were willing to give up a draft pick for Smith. And cut Howard and McDonald. I hope the kid can play. (I know Howard and McDonald play two different spots.) I’m just sayin’

Oh man we are thin at DT these next few weeks, im worried carolina and SF will run up the gut on us. We basically have only 3 DT healthy to play, with one being this new guy Smith. I guess will could slide Red over to 3 tech to help out, since the 3 and 5 positions are similar.

I think they’ve upgraded the DT position, and I’d bet that Mebane and McDaniel do fine at DT this week. Carroll rested them last week, and these big guys play with minor groin pulls and stuff all the time. Best, I think Michael Bennett will give us everything we only hoped Jason Jones would give us on third downs.

My main concern right now if Avril. If he’s full-go, then I think we’ve got plenty of players. I’m even looking forward to seeing Schofield turn it loose.

I am not sure what all the fuss is about Jaye Howard over here. He had a fairly impressive preseason last year too and then proceeded to become an inactive on game days for all but two weeks out of the regular season. I trust Quinn’s decision on this one. He coached Howard at Florida, then became his boss again this year. Remember that Quinn has a deep background as a d-line coach. Remember that this is the same guy that basically reinvented Red Bryant and turned him from obscure sub to starting fixture on Seattle’s front seven.

Loosing Harper will hurt just a little once 2014 rolls in, and Rice is on his way out. But for now, go Hawks… The season is early, and in Pete/John will have a good plan for ’14. Lets kick some panther butt in an early away game, and see how it looks after..

“He’s had a great preparation to get back,” Carroll said after Monday’s practice. “It’ll be light on Wednesday, but he’s been really busting it [in rehab drills]. We’ll bring him along and take our time and make sure he’s ready to go. But he’s not in consideration for this weekend. We’re just excited he’s back out there.”

Really sounds like he could be ready to go for the Niners game if he doesn’t have any setbacks this week.

Looking at our backups, its easy to see how big a priority is being placed on special teams this season. Get nine or ten of these guys on the field together and they are going to raise some hell on kicks and punts.

Dang Stevos I hope your right, I also hope Avril will show up and be the guy PC/RS saw bringing pressure. We need to hit the season running and only get better and by 5th 6th game be looking ahead for homefield advantage. Running game, passing game and, stopping run, and back end on D should be great. But my broken record Pressure pressure pressure still makes me worry abit.

Carolina has a good front seven on defense and a big, strong QB but that’s about all. The back end of the defense and the left side of the O-Line is average at best. The right guard and tackle are pretty bad. One good receiver and a serviceable running back.

xcman- you’re actually allowed to dress 46 guys on gameday so only 7 inactives. I actually think this dumb rule. Nowadays we so many guys being speacialist they should up the gameday rosters to 48. I think all teams would vote yes.

Sorry..I stopped caring about the players with promise who get paid as starters yet never seem to play – Flynn.. In the end, they do not have the wear and tear, but have the money and a long life ahead to enjoy it. We all should be happy for Flynn, but I was sure looking forward to him proving it in Oakland. Oh well..tendinitis is a bitch.

I’m disappointed in Flynn. I wanted to believe he had the drive to be a starter and just needed the opportunity. He got beat out here. I thought he’d jump at the chance in Oaktown.

Turns out Flynn is ‘laid back’ according to Moon. That’s QB speak for he doesn’t want to put in the effort it takes to be a starter.

Only thing he has going for himself now is Oackland’s O-Line is pathetic. Pryor will be running for his life and he’s not very accurate in his passing game. I predict Pryor will be benched around the 4th week or so. Flynn will go in and play for a few weeks. Then I guess they can go back to Pryor or they can go to the undrafted rookie.

Either way, Oakland as a team is going to be a trainwreck this year. It’s going to be a dogfight between them, the Jets, and the Jags to see who can ‘win’ the 1st pick in next year’s draft. I could see all three teams ‘tying’ with identical records of 4-12, 3-13, or 2-14.

What’s the tiebreaker for worst team? We may actually see that having to be used this year.

I believe the tiebreakerfor the first pick after head to head is strenght of schedule, that being whoever had the weakest schedule gets the better pick, true of all ties regarding the draft, then rotates round by round

They use the same tiebreakers for worst team that they do for best team i.e. take a look at NFL tiebreaking procedures and if there ended up being three teams all at 3-13 or something they’d use those procedures to figure out who was #30, then #31 and that would determine #32 by default…

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